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CEDAR CITY, Utah — As both a music lover and record store owner, Tim Cretsinger is excited about the recent resurgence of vinyl record albums.

"This is my favorite thing to do — hold a batch of records like this," Cretsinger, owner of Groovacious in Cedar City, Utah, says as he hugged a stack of new records close to his chest. "It reminds me of the old days."

The old days are making a comeback.

According to recent Nielsen SoundScan numbers, vinyl was the fastest-growing musical format in 2010, with 2.8 million units sold, the format's best year since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

Vinyl's increase in popularity is providing a beacon of hope for independent record stores — an industry that has suffered with the increase of digital downloads this past decade.

When Cretsinger moved his business from Keiser, Ore., to Cedar City in 2000 there were two other record stores in the college town of about 28,000. Now, the closest independent record store is in Las Vegas, 175 miles away.

"Vinyl seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel for those of us who have hung in there," he says. "It's kind of a surprising light at the end of the tunnel. It's incredibly exciting."

Not only have vinyl album sales picked up, but the interest in record players has increased as well. Cretsinger said he got tired of directing his customers to other businesses where they could purchase turntables, so he began offering a small selection at his store in January.

Like Groovacious, Plan 9 Music stores in Richmond and Charlottesville, Va., are fairly new to the turntable market, but have offered vinyl records since the first store opened in 1981, says owner Jim Bland. Although he never quit selling vinyl, Bland says sales were slow for many years as CDs dominated the market.

However, as CD sales plummeted in recent years, Plan 9 Music found itself with some open space on the floor. That empty space is now back to the basics.

I was one of the last hold outs as far as buying a CD player was concerned. When I realized how crappy pre-recorded cassettes are, I broke down and got a CD player and started buying CDs.

What I found is this: for me, sound quality on CDs is far superior to vinyl. Especially when it comes to classical music-you can hear every note, every sound. You can't do that with LPs or cassettes.

The only thing about LPs that is superior is cover art. CDs are small and come in small packages, and you can't see the cover art as well, at least on album cover art that is worth looking at. I still have all my vinyl albums, though, in a crate in the basement.

I like Cds. They're small and the retention of the album format makes for a better listening experience for me. There are plenty of songs that I never would have bought that I eventually liked very much because I played the entire album. I also like the 'concept album' concept. :D

Punk has kept vinyl alive all these years. I don't know why, but they have an addiction to putting out LP's, EP's, 7 in, ect, and there are a lot of collector nuts who track down rare records, so often bands put out funky editions for the first run of a record (colored vinyl, picture discs, clear vinyl). There was a little bubble back in the late 90's since the grunge/alternative scene was heavily influenced by punk, and another bubble as the goth/emo/screamo thing (Hot Topic fans) grew, which also is connected to punk. Some metal bands used to put out the occasional collector's edition record, but those were pretty rare.

Personally, I want to get the money together to get some of the records I see in the big stores, just because it's great to see the album covers big enough to make out what the art is supposed to look like. And I've been seeing them in several big chain stores for at least a year now, if not more. Way to stay on top of the culture USA Today.

Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Differences between Obama and God: God's plan to save us is actually written down for people to read. Rush Limbaugh.